By Josh Staloch
Correspondent
GREEN BAY – The Pulaski football team let Green Bay Preble know they were in for a long night on the first play of Friday night’s game.
The Red Raiders special teams unit forced a fumble on the opening kickoff, and the offense scored a few plays later as part of Pulaski’s 35-0 Fox River Classic Conference victory over the Hornets.
The fumble on the opening kickoff was one of two big plays turned in by Pulaski’s special teams’ squad during the game.
“That’s definitely a bonus,” Pulaski head coach Jerad Marsh said. “You always want to win special teams. To be able to get some scores out
of them and be able to flip the field, those are the things you need sometimes when other things are maybe slower than they should be.”
With the early lead in hand, Pulaski’s ground game went to work on the wet field at Preble.
Maverick Cole and Aaron Maroszek took turns carrying the ball, each picking up good yards before Cole broke through from a yard out to put the Red Raiders up 14-0 after the extra point.
Pulaski came up with another huge play on special teams to start the second half.
Cole took the kickoff and made his way upfield along his own sideline into the end zone for a 21-0 lead after the extra point.
The Hornets put together a good drive later in the third quarter, one that featured a clutch pass from quarterback David Torres to Jackson Racine on third-and-seven for a first down, but the series ran out of gas, and Preble had to punt.
The Red Raiders got another highlight-reel play from Cole on their next drive.
With about a minute to play in the third quarter, on a second-and-14 play, the 6-foot-2, 224-pound junior running back blasted his way through the Preble defense for a 65-yard touchdown run and a 28-0 lead after the extra point.
“I know their record isn’t speaking to it right now, but Preble is a good football club,” Marsh said. “They’ll have some success throughout the year. Their coaches do a great job. For us, the focus is to clean up some little things. Our offense, there’s a ballet to it. There are a lot of moving parts that need to fit together. Once all of our guys get a good feel for that, it’ll be cool to see.”